Why Capitalizing the ‘B’ in Black Still Matters for Cultural Competence and Accurate Representation

With the Black Lives Matter movement still in full force, corporations paying more attention to diversity and inclusion, and leaders of African descent being placed in the forefront, the debate about the capitalization of “Black” in mainstream media has been one of high significance. Cultural identity has been at the center of discussions on racial equality and justice, and major media companies have been put to task for appropriate representation of the communities they report on and serve.

Global mainstream news outlets including The New York Times and the Associated Press have just recently taken deliberate stances in changing their style guides to mandate the capitalization of the word “Black” in reference to people of African descent—efforts Black publications have practiced and pushed for centuries.

Fair360, formerly DiversityInc Chairman             Luke Visconti

In June 2020, the premier source of media content style and writing guidelines—The Associated Press—finally changed its style guide to capitalize the “b” in the term Black when referring to people in a racial, ethnic or cultural context, the organization reported

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